Thoughtful Wednesday

"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement – to get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed."   Abraham Joshua Heschel

Thoughtful Sunday

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."

by Simone Weil

Mysteries

Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvellous

to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the

mouths of lambs...

How two hands touch and the bonds will

never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say

"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.

Mary Oliver

Thoughtful Saturday

"To be human is to live by sunlight

and moonlight and

with anxiety and

admitting limits and

transcending them, falling down

and rising up.

To want a life with only half of these

things in it is to want half a life,

shutting the other half away where

it will not interfere with one’s bright

fantasies of the way things

ought to be”

Barbara Brown Taylor

from "Learning to walk in the dark"

Thoughtful Friday 172

"In bleak and difficult times

you must always keep

something beautiful in your heart"

Pascal

Thoughtful Friday 153

"We are remembered from the ways

we have walked our ideals.

At the heart of history is this reminder -

you paint the colours of your days"

Mary Anne Radmacher

Thoughtful Friday 152

"Always remember that the future comes 

one day at a time"

Dean G Acheson

Thoughtful Friday 151

"Fear is the thief of dreams"

Anonymous

Thoughtful Friday 150

"Creativity requires the courage to let

go of certainties"

Erich Fromm

Thoughtful Friday 149

"As you walk, eat and travel, be where you are."

Buddha

(zendoodled diary cover by a friend)

Thoughtful Friday 147

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. 

But there was always some obstacle in the way, 

something to be gotten through first,

 some unfinished business, time still to be served, 

or a debt to be paid. 

Then life would begin. 

At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life"

Fr Alfred de Souza

Thoughtful Friday 146

"But words are things, and a small drop of ink,

falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that

which makes thousands, perhaps millions think"

Lord Byron

Thoughtful Friday 145

"It is by logic we prove.  It is by intuition we discover"

Henri Poincare

Thoughtful Friday 144

 "Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

One cannot help but be in awe when he comtemplates

the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous

structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely

to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.

Never lose a holy curiosity."

Albert Einstein

Thoughtful Friday 143

"The greatest investment in a day is

a dangerous unselfishness wrapped

in joy and tied with ribbons of

laughter and learning, understanding 

and compassion."

Mary Anne Radmacher

Thoughtful Friday 142

"....with an eye made quiet by the power

of harmony and the deep power of joy,

we see into the life of things."

William Wordsworth

Thoughtful Friday 141

"The challenge before us is to savor the unknown

and delight in the taste of possibility"

Mary Anne Radmacher

Thoughtful Friday 140

"Life is curly.  Don't try to straighten it out."

Susan Scott

Thoughtful Friday 139

"Memory is a child walking along a seashore.  

You never can tell what small pebble it

will pick up and store away among

its treasured things."

Pierce Harris

Thoughtful Friday 138

"A five-to-one ratio of appreciation to criticism helps

people think for themselves"

Nancy Kline